20 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
sides below the water line, to gain an 
excuse to spend a few more days with 
his bride. 
After a voyage of nineteen days the 
vessel entered the Loire, and anchored 
in the lower harbour of Nantes, and 
Audubon was soon welcomed by his 
father and fond foster-mother. 
His first object was to have the man 
Da Costa disposed of, which he soon 
accomplished ; the second, to get his 
father’s consent to his marriage with 
Lucy Bakewell, which was also brought 
about in due time, although the parents 
of both agreed that they were ‘‘owre 
young to marry yet.’’ 
Audubon now remained two years in 
France, indulging his taste for hunting, 
rambling, and drawing birds and other 
objects of Natural History. 
This was probably about the years 
1805 and 1806. France was under the 
sway of Napoleon, and conscriptions 
were the order of-the day. The elder 
